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NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg snapped a photo of the blaze from her
post aboard the International Space Station on Saturday (Aug.
24).

"Our orbit took us directly over California's Rim Fire about an
hour ago Devastating August 26," Nyberg wrote on her Twitter
account, @AstroKarenN.

The Rim Fire, which started on Aug. 17, has burned more than
149,000 acres of land, threatening homes, Yosemite National Park,
sequoias and San Francisco's water supply. The fire is now 15
percent contained, with more than 3,000 personnel working to stop
its spread. [ Yosemite
Aflame: Rim Fire in Photos ]

"Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes, and
roads in the area were closed," NASA's Earth Observatory wrote.
"As of Aug. 23, no structures had been reported destroyed, but
the fire threatened the towns of Groveland and Pine Mountain
Lake."

This has been a somewhat less active year for wildfires compared
to other years in recent memory, the Earth Observatory reported.
Wildfires have so far charred 3.4 million acres in the United
States in 2013, observatory officials said. By comparison,
in 2012, wildfires burned more than 9.3 million acres of
land, according to statistics provided by the National
Interagency Fire Center.

"Over the last 30, years we have seen an increase in hot and dry
conditions that promote fire activity," Doug Morton, a scientist
at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in
a statement. "And across the Western United States and Alaska,
satellites show an increase in the area that burns each year over
that same time period."

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have spotted
wildfires before. In June 2012, a wildfire in Colorado that
consumed 15,517 acres of land was photographed from a window of
the orbiting laboratory. A 2011
wildfire burning in Texas was also seen by astronauts onboard
the outpost.

Satellites in orbit around the Earth have captured images of the
wildfire's progress, as well. On Aug. 22, NASA's Aqua satellite
photographed smoke rising from the fire, and a day later, the
space agency's Suomi NPP satellite shot a photo of the blaze.